Urameshi is More Than Just a Name
By Moonraker One
A/N: If this chapter seems shorter, that's cuz it is. Gomen, I felt like where I left it was a good enough stopping point.
CHAPTER THREE: Youkai versus Youkai
In the present
As the duo of father and son approached the temple of Genkai, it seemed the old master had been looking up to the stars, apparently in the midst of meditation. However involved she was, the sound of footsteps brought her back to full awareness, as she always made habit of being on guard. Her temple stood in the middle of a thick forest, and out of the foliage approached a familiar figure. Squinting—her eyes were a byproduct of her being old—she noticed of the two figures approaching, one she recognized as Yusuke Urameshi, her main protégé. The other person, however, didn't register; she'd never seen him before, and she certainly wasn't keen on strangers. On the other hand, if he was with Yusuke, he couldn't be too bad.
"So, you decided to come here to me?" she asked him, noticing his calm demeanor. "You poor, tortured soul. Who's 'Big You'?"
Saotuke rolled his eyes at the elderly master. "I always wondered why they say the mind is the first thing to go," he joked. Genkai shook her head and waved them towards the inside.
"Don't worry, Saotuke, I know who you are."
Yusuke seemed surprised. "You two know each other?" he wondered out loud. "Let me guess, you gave him a training session when he was just a boy." Genkai turned to her protégé, and instantly blew his mind with what she said next.
"Wrong, Yusuke," she shot back. "He gave me a training session when I was just a little girl." Yusuke turned to his father.
"Um...dad?" He still had somewhat a problem calling his father dad. "Exactly how old are you?"
Saotuke cleared his throat. "That's a dumb thing to ask. I'd say about nine thousand years."
"Did you know Raizen?"
The tall youkai lowered his eyebrows; what a memory Yusuke had just brought to the front of his mind. "He was my father," Saotuke carefully explained. "I knew it, he knew it, the only problem was, he never wanted to believe it. The deal was, he loved my Human mother; I loved her too. But I desperately wanted to be a full demon. One day, I finally accomplished it, at the cost of becoming a human-eating demon just like my father was. Oh, you should have seen his fury when he kicked me out of his house forever."
"Do you still eat people?"
"When the dark tournament came around, oh, about six thousand years ago, I finally wished away my evil hunger."
"Have you two answered enough of each other's questions?" Both father and son turned to see Genkai waiting at the front door which led to the main battle area of her temple. It was outside, wide open and large enough that they could fight and not damage the building at all. Once they got out into the open, however, something revealed itself; three distinct figures, each representing a friend.. There stood Hiei, Kurama, and of all people, Atsuko. Yusuke didn't precisely understand what purpose his mother could serve, but then quickly remembered that his father's training had given her something. Saotuke turned to Atsuko.
"Should I fight him first?" he asked. A grin made it onto Atsuko's face.
"No, let me." He offer came as a surprise to the other two. Hiei stopped her as she started to walk towards her son.
"Mrs. Urameshi," he said, squinting, "you can't possibly expect to be a match for Yusuke. He's beaten Sensui, and even taken part in the Makai tournament. He's an S-class!"
She looked to the three-eyed demon. "Hiei, I haven't been doing nothing in the past fourteen years." Nevertheless, Kurama and Hiei shot glances at each other.
Do you actually think she can match Yusuke? I mean... Kurama telepathically said, but Hiei cut him off.
Not a chance, he replied. "Mrs. Urameshi, I just can't let you fight him; he's far too strong for you. Fight someone just a bit weaker."
"You mean, someone like you, maybe?" Hiei bit his lip purposefully; that was a blatant insult.
"Atsuko," he said nicely, "you're the mother of the person who saved the world, and you're just a weakling, so I'm gonna let that insult slide and just let go. Okay?" Atsuko shrugged.
"That's fine with me, Jaganshi," she fired back. "I mean, you just go on being an idiot. Who cares?" The rock he'd been carrying in his hand for the purpose of relieving stress by squeezing he crushed in his hand and hurled the particles to the ground.
"Alright," he shouted, ripping off his shirt and assuming battle position. "You ASKED for it."
"Hiei, stand back NOW!" Yusuke demanded. Saotuke put his arm in front of his son to stop him.
"Don't interfere. Let Hiei learn his lesson."
"WHAT LESSON IS THAT?" the demon with the Jagan demanded. Furiously, he threw his strongest physical attack at Atsuko. Expecting it to blow her head clean off, he held back on his strength a small amount. Holding his power down, he expected to give her a headache.
Instead, she blocked it with one hand. With his fist in her hand, and the element of surprise on her side, she lifted her knee into his gut and then into his chin, finishing the combo with a standing side kick to the face. He got thrown about six feet back to land on his back. He stood up and shook the dust off him.
"Uh, what the hell just happened?!" Saotuke looked down at his son, who wore an expression of complete and utter shock.
The tall youkai smiled a broad grin. "Someone needs to eat their Wheaties before their next battle."
Hiei turned to the powerful demon. "SAOTUKE! YOU SAID SHE WAS A B-CLASS!"
"Uh uh uh!" he scolded the Jaganshi. "I said she was a B-class at the dark tournament, which was about fourteen years ago. I don't know what kind of training she's gotten since then, or maybe she just took you by surprise."
Hiei grumbled. "I'll show you who's taking who by surprise." As soon as he got his mind back onto the battle, he noticed that she had already prepared for her counter assault, which he had almost no time to duck beneath. On the positive side, he was able to avoid the brunt of her attack; on the negative side, the force of the blow he did take was enough to blast him through a tree. Hurling the top of the tree off him, and getting back to a standing position, her aura already had engulfed her, signaling she was heading to full power.
"At your maximum power, you're a middle A-class," she explained to the confused demon with the third eye, "and you certainly outclass me. But, let this teach you that you can't underestimate your opponents." Seeing the pattern in her stance, he launched himself right of her in order to avoid a left hook, and instead of sending a kick to her stomach—which he motioned for—he went for a direct uppercut, taking her by surprise and following it up with a roundhouse to her face. She pushed aura out her back as she flew, effectively stopping herself in midair. It spared her only a moment, though, as he came in quickly with a flying elbow to her chest, taking her by complete surprise again and thrusting her to the ground. On her feet again, she went directly for his face, but he beat her to the punch, nailing her in the chin.
"Dad!" Yusuke shouted. "Why aren't you stopping this?!"
Saotuke looked to his son with a grin. "Because at this rate, Hiei's done for."
Hiei got behind Atsuko and went for a final blow to the back of her head, which landed and she met the ground face first. "Hah. It's over," he said, and began to walk towards the inside of the palace. Saotuke laughed out loud. "What's so funny? I won. Serves her right for insulting my intellect," Hiei responded.
"You idiot!" Saotuke chuckled. "Look behind you."
In the Past
Atsuko looked left and right, at the vastness of the Makai forest, simply amazed at the level of uniqueness of the demon world's forest, yet, how many qualities it shared with Nigenkai. What snapped her out of her wandering state of mind, was a sudden slap by Saotuke.
"PAY ATTENTION!" he shouted, immediately getting her attention. "I'm trying to get you stronger, and here you are, acting like an idiot." She instantly managed to get herself back into proper order. Although, his means seemed quite rude to her as she prepared to continue her training.
"I was just trying to get a peek at the scenery! Jeez!" she cried. "We really don't have to go anywhere, do we?!" Saotuke rolled his eyes.
"Actually," he replied, "I was planning on a little 'field trip.' You up for a little snatch and go?"
She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Snatch and go? What're you talking about?!"
"I mean, for this part of your training, you're gonna steal a major artifact from a prominent demon palace."
She recoiled in shock. "Are you NUTS?! I'm new here!" He didn't seem to want to further argue the point, so he merely grabbed her by her shirt and began to drag her towards the destination. After about seven feet, she surrendered and began walking on her own will. As the duo trotted towards their target, she couldn't help but stare at the level of beauty in the flora and fauna of the demon world. She'd always believed it was horrid, dank, and evil, but the forest always appealed to her senses. She'd wanted to be a park ranger when she grew up, but her father tended to crush hopes and dreams. Nevertheless, she knew a fortune of knowledge could be made on the different species of trees and plants that had to be unique to the Makai.
About two and a half hours slowly trudged by as they walked a seemingly endless winding path to the palace. A non-visible path that only Saotuke seemed to know was their shortcut to a place, where, according to his knowledge, had the most powerful demons in the kingdom. He did not fear them, but then again, he was not the one being trained here. Atsuko was, and the girl didn't have but the power of perhaps a lower C-class youkai. Soon, they came up behind a tree, and the duo hid themselves behind trees and concealed their power. It was a mighty-looking palace, and there were at least seven guards on patrol.
"Atsuko," he whispered. When he noticed she was not focusing on his words, he sharpened his tone without raising his voice. "Atsuko!" he rasped. She almost jumped, but maintained her posture and turned to him.
"What?!" she shouted in a whisper.
"You go in there," he quietly explained, "and make sure not to get caught by the palace leader. He's a very powerful demon—I mean, he's very powerful from your perspective."
"Oh great! I'm supposed to just waltz in and steal it?!"
"Yeah. Go!"
In The Present
Hiei turned just slightly too slow, and found that his face became introduced to a flying kick. Everyone looked on in surprise as he flew across the field and ultimately smashed through a tree. Everyone, that is, except for Saotuke. He knew all along that she'd improved a significant amount since the dark tournament. Although he hadn't been there, he had reliable sources—sources linked to his former teammate Toguro—that always kept him informed. Why they never told him about Yusuke until now, though, was another story.
"So, now that you've been proven completely wrong, Hiei," the tall youkai said as he watched the fire demon pick himself up. "Are you going to give up the fight? Because my son Yusuke here would probably like to get his shot in now."
Hiei threw up his arms, in defeat. "Ok! OK! Fine!"
"Um, dad? I'd really much rather fight you than mom."
Saotuke turned to his son. "Don't worry, you'll get to fight whomever wins this next bout." The Super S-ranked youkai turned to his wife. "Atsuko, I think it's about time to see how far your training has got you."
She drew her aura out as much as she could, empowering herself to her utmost. She knew if she was to put a dent in a nine thousand year-old youkai, she'd have to pull out all the stops. Saotuke pulled off his shirt, which revealed a rather unique trait: at his normal level of power, he looked skinny as a rail. Clenching his fists, the youkai loosened the chains on his youki, causing his muscles to expand to a size close to Toguro's, and his power skyrocketing to just below S-level combat. Yusuke estimated his father's power to be at least twice that of his opponent at the Dark Tournament. However, it was Saotuke's next sentence that took everyone by surprise.
"Twenty percent of my power should about do it for this combat," he said. "Don't want to hurt her more than I want to."
"T...TWENTY PERCENT?!" Kurama shrieked. He wasn't usually one to be surprised but the thought of the youkai using such a small percentage of his strength and being as strong as he currently was, flabbergasted him. "You mean you're using only a fifth of your strength?!" It looked unique for a combat situation: Atsuko was revved up as high as her youki would allow, Saotuke was using only a fifth of his power, yet they presently looked almost equal. It was almost too much to comprehend.
Atsuko kicked off the fight with a straight-on punch to his chest that he dodged with slight difficulty. Bending his body concavely, he avoided a sideways kick to his stomach, and then bent convexly to duck below a roundhouse aimed at his head. She managed to deliver a fake kick which she turned instead into a punch, which landed on his right cheek and threw him backwards. He landed on his hands and knees, but couldn't react fast enough to avoid an axe kick that propelled him upwards, allowing her to nail him in the back with a kick.
"Hey, Urameshi!" Hiei beckoned. "It looks like your mom's winning. That's pretty sad."
Saotuke hit the ground thanks to a downward strike from Atsuko. She landed and made the peace sign with her right hand, as he picked himself up off the ground. "So, twenty percent ain't enough for you huh?" he said, making his aura rapidly expand. "I HAVE TO GO TO THIRTY!"
"I lose! I lose!" Atsuko cried. "I can beat you at twenty, but thirty is way too much for me."
The demon turned to his son. "Yusuke! Step in!"
Yusuke raised an eyebrow. "Don't you want to take a breather?"
"Step in! NOW!"